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GR: Fachverband Gravitation und Relativitätstheorie

GR 6: Gravitational waves

GR 6.1: Talk

Monday, March 17, 2014, 16:30–16:50, SPA SR220

LISA Pathfinder: A mission status — Martin Hewitson and •Andreas Wittchen — Albert Einstein Institute, Callinstr 38, Hannover, 30167

LISA Pathfinder (LPF) is a precursor and technology validation mission for LISA-like gravitational wave observatories in space. Some of the key technology needed for this kind of observatory, such as micro-Newton propulsion, space-based optical metrology, drag-free control, and inertial sensing, will be directly tested on LPF. With a scheduled launch date of July 2015, the mission is at an advanced stage of integration and testing. This talk will give an overview of the overall mission, giving the status of the various key components, a discussion on the key noise sources, and a brief introduction to the experiments that will be carried out during mission operations.